Futsal A League: end of regular season - fight for the last spot in the playoffs

2023-02-01 02:08 © futsal.lt

The penultimate round of the regular futsal A League season was generous with goals and surprising results. Of course, the biggest surprise was provided by "Vikings" defeating the still jubilant representatives of "Turbotransfers" and "Sun Country" soundly defeating the VIP opposition.

Those five matches helped answer even more questions. "Vikings", despite losing, will finish the regular season in second place, "Radviliskis" - seventh, and "Siauliai-VGTU Wolves" will not rise from the bottom of the tournament table.

The most interesting battle remained between the 3rd and 6th places. Just a reminder that those four teams will compete against each other in the quarterfinals.

Surprise 1

In order not to have to look to "Panevezys" and keep their hopes to compete for a place in the playoffs, the capital's "Turbotransfers" footballers needed to defeat the "Vikings". The task was not an easy one, but it was successfully accomplished.

This means that in order to reach the playoffs, the "transfers" must not lose in the last match against "Panevezys". In case of a draw, the season will end for the Aukstaitija team.

Speaking of the match itself, the residents of Vilnius took the lead from the third minute of the game, but the "Vikings" were constantly breathing down their necks (3:2, 4:3).

The turning point could be called Audrius Dilys's goal. The "Turbotransfers" goalkeeper scored from his own penalty area, despite the fact that the opponents' goalkeeper was there, he simply misplayed. With a three-goal lead and scoring two more goals in the final minute, the residents of Vilnius successfully maintained that lead.

Surprise 2

If they had secured victory, VIP players would have clinched third place in the regular season and could now calmly await the playoffs. Instead, they made Ukrainian players Maksym Pochet and Dmytro Klochko the stars of the game.

The main work for "Sun Country" was done in the first half of the match, after which the scoreboard showed 0:5. And if in some other matches after mistakes by their team mates the team was saved by goalkeeper Karolis Cirba, this time he was powerless against opponent's well-placed shots.

After the break, things upfront were fixed - many more opportunities were created, which turned into three goals. However, the situation in defense did not change - it was as porous as before the break, and remained so after it. It can probably be stated that these were the worst VIP matches of the entire season.

"Sun Country" victory against VIP was not the only one last week. It is worth remembering that a few days earlier the joint team of Siauliai and Naujoji Akmenė scored three points after the match against "Radviliskis."

Although at the time the Radviliskis team was in the lead after the first half, after the break, Dmytro Klochko and once - Aivaras Bagočius showed their class twice.

Unrivaled

Before the match, the footballers of "Radviliskis" stated that taking points from "Kaunas Žalgiris" was a slim chance. As the match showed, it was not even a slim chance. Once they switched to a higher gear, the players of Žalgiris kept increasing their lead, which grew to 9:1 by the end of the match.

In this game, Albert Voskunovicius scored his first hat-trick of the season, while the most productive player of the championship, Wepe, added two more to his 25 goals.

The Kaunas club, which has long secured the first place in the regular season, will find out their first playoff opponent this weekend, while the Radviliskis team already knows that they will compete for a place in the semifinals against the former vice-champions of recent years, Jonava "Vikings."

Finally

After five consecutive winless matches, "Gargzdai Entertainment" finally did what the audience gathered in the arena had been waiting for a long time. By the way, the way the match started, it seemed that the series of winless matches could go on even longer.

After playing for just over a minute, the home team finally broke the deadlock, and the "Panevezys" legionnaire Eduardo Sio did not forgive the mistakes.

Despite this misfortune, the Gargzdai team did not panic, but sought opportunities to correct their mistakes and turn the game and the result in their favor. They managed to do this before the break. The second half was more of a formality.

Among Debutants

In the clash of two league debutants - "Brooklyn's" dominance was obvious. Holding out for more than half of the first period, the Siauliai players later regrettably pulled the ball out of the net one after another and within less than three minutes after the break already had a deficit of four goals.

The match was clearly decided then, which means that "Siauliai-VGTU Wolves" will finish the season at the bottom of the table. "Brooklyn," on the other hand, continues its incredible performance and has a chance to start the playoffs with a home field advantage.